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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Now you have to pass through security to leave the airport.

Futuristic unmanned portals have replaced officers at the security exits of two small Northeast airports, adding a few seconds in a bulletproof glass pod to the end of every passenger’s trip.

The rounded exits at the Syracuse and Atlantic City, N.J., airports prevent passengers from backtracking into secure areas once they exit the plane and keep outsiders from entering through the exits.

Travelers step into the elevator-sized cylinders and wait as a door slides closed behind them. After a couple of seconds, another door opens in front with a female voice coolly instructing, “Please exit.”

They could be the wave of things to come as the Transportation Security Administration prepares to shift exit-monitoring duties to local airports next year as a way to save $88.1 million. The doors’ manufacturer, New York City-based Eagle Security Group Inc., said it is in talks with other airports.

The technology saves airports from having to put paid security staff at the exit checkpoints. Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who is pushing to keep the TSA in charge of exit monitoring, said such staffing could cost Philadelphia International Airport about $2 million a year.

Syracuse Aviation Commissioner Christina Callahan, whose airport installed eight portals this year at a total cost of about $750,000, said staffing each exit with a guard would cost about $580,000 a year.

“So, when compared with the cost to install the portals, they will have paid for themselves and begin saving the airport money in little over a year,” she said.

The portals are intended to remove the potential for the kind of human error that was blamed for a 2010 breach that shut down a Newark Liberty International Airport terminal for several hours and caused worldwide flight delays after a Rutgers graduate student slipped under a rope to see his girlfriend off on her flight.

On recent evenings in both Syracuse and Atlantic City, there did not appear to be any sign of backups caused by the roughly five-second process of entering and exiting the portals. Signs encouraged travelers to enter the pods in groups — they can accommodate up to six people at a time — rather than one by one.

“It went smoothly,” said Robert Beech, who arrived in Syracuse on a flight from New York. “Just had to wait for the doors to open and close. Even with carry-on, pull-behind bags, you can still get through there without having to worry about bumping into things.”